25143 Itokawa (/ˌiːtoʊˈkɑːwə/; Japanese: イトカワ[itokawa]) is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was the first asteroid to be the target of a sample return mission, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa, and the smallest asteroid photographed by a spacecraft.

NASA has reported a catastrophic event is taking place in space, but scientists are still investigating what exactly has happened or happening. Mysterious flashes of X-rays beamed towards Earth before vanishing just 24 hours later, leaving scientists to investigate the source. Initial findings suggest it came from a “completely new type of cataclysmic event”. The phenomenon was captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, stemmed from a galaxy 10.7 billion light years away. The X-ray source, is located in the sky known as Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S).

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system. The term supermoon is not astronomical, but originated in modern astrology. The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but there is no evidence of such a link.

The opposite phenomenon, an apogee-syzygy, has been called a micromoon, though this term is not as widespread as supermoon.

The most recent supermoon occurred on November 14, 2016. This was the closest supermoon since January 26, 1948, and will not be surpassed until November 25, 2034 The closest supermoon of the century will occur on December 6, 2052. The next supermoon will be on December 14, 2016.

Occasionally, a supermoon coincides with a total lunar eclipse. The most recent occurrence of this was in September 2015, while the next time will be in October 2033.

An equinox is an astronomical event in which the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September.

On an equinox, day and night are of approximately equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the angular size of the sun and atmospheric refraction. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light and darkness are equal. See Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion.

Equinoxes on Earth

The equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator (the “edge” between night and day) is perpendicular to the equator. As a result, the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated.

In other words, the equinoxes are the only times when the subsolar point is on the equator, meaning that the Sun is exactly overhead at a point on the equatorial line. The subsolar point crosses the equator moving northward at the March equinox and southward at the September equinox.

The equinoxes, along with solstices, are directly related to the seasons of the year. In the northern hemisphere, the vernal equinox (March) conventionally marks the beginning of spring in most cultures and is considered the New Year in the Persian calendar or Iranian calendars as Nouroz (means new day), while the autumnal equinox (September) marks the beginning of autumn. In the southern hemisphere, the vernal equinox occurs in September and the autumnal equinox in March.